The Elmen

Part 1 Nothing Ever Changes- Chapter 4 A Cracked Code

The next week went like any other week at the school. That is except for Sam, Will, Tom and I. For us it included some very late nights and a lot of time in the library. We spent almost all of our time there trying to crack the code we discovered in Sam's book. One night Sam was in my room extra late.

"I feel like we are never going to figure this out," I said flopping onto my neatly made bed.

"Yes we will Lu, and when we do I have a feeling that this will change everything," he said flopping down on the bed next to me. "I know how miserable you are here. I'm miserable and I haven't been here even a full two weeks."

"How do you know that Sam?"

"I just do Lu, I just do," he said as he pushed a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

"I just wish that I knew what it was like to be outside of the walls. I want to know what the real world is like, and not the stories we are told in class."

"I know, I know. I can tell you stories about it if you want, I have lots."

"Yes please."

"Okay, here we go." With that, he pulled me into his arms and started to tell me what life was like outside of the school. Some things sounded amazing, and some not so much. We had always been told that we would not be accepted outside of the school because we were different, but Sam had been accepted and he was just like us. At least I thought he had been accepted. Before I knew it we were both sound asleep dreaming of what it would be like to not be in the school anymore. The next day when we awoke we vowed to never tell Will. I had never been this close to a boy and I didn't know how he would react.

That Saturday after our long week, I decided to take a break from all that hard work and go over to the barn, I spent all day exercising horses. I was just finishing up with my horse, named Roman, when Tom, Will, and Sam came running up to the arena fence.

"I have cracked the code!" Panted Tom.

"Keep it down, Alison has been following me ever since I made a frog jump in her soup yesterday," I said as I dismounted Roman.

"YOU WHAT!!!!" they all exclaimed. No one ever dared to mess with the chosen ones, but I had been feeling extra brave that day.

"I made a frog jump into Alison's soup, its no big deal," I said. "Let me put Roman up and we can go to my room and talk." As soon as I had put Roman away we headed up to my room. Sam and I had a hard time looking at each other after what had happened just a few nights ago, and I think Will noticed. It was the first time we had both been back in my room.

My room looked like any other room at the school. My walls were a deep red and the floors were made of wood. I had a four-poster bed, bookshelves, a dresser, a desk, a closet and a sitting area with a TV. I also had pictures on the walls from my time here at the school. In one corner of the room sat a piano and a surfboard. I loved the water and the school backed right up to the beach so everyone spent a lot of time there. As soon as I had shut the door to my room I went and opened a drawer, from where I pulled out a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

"So what does it say?" I asked as I walked into my bathroom to change my clothes.

"First of all, it's a riddle and it says this, "To continue your journey you must find the one with many eyes, and weird hair. They have been dead for many years, but if they were alive you would not like to look them in the eye." said Tom as he sat down on my bed.

"Tom get off my bed," I called from the bathroom.

"How did you...." He said confused.

" I just know. Does anyone have an idea what it means?" I said as I walked out of my bathroom with my clean clothes on and sat down on the floor in front of Sam before leaning back against his legs. No one said anything. Except Sam who was trying to not laugh at the fact that he was allowed on my bed, but Tom wasn't.

"Does anyone have any idea what it or they is?" asked Sam after a few minutes of silent thinking.

"I don't," I said. "Will, do you have any ideas?"

"I would, but I can't think on an empty stomach," said Will as he put a hand on his grumbling stomach.

"It is almost 6:30, let's go down to dinner," said Tom.

"Yeah, I'm starved, we can figure this out later," said Sam. I rolled my eyes.

"Why are you rolling your eyes?" asked Will.

"Because, lets face it you boys are always hungry," I laughed.

"Hey, you try growing and gaining all this muscle," Sam said acting offended as he smiled down at me.

"Oh it must be so hard," I said looking up at him with a smile. We both started laughing.

"I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to dinner," Will said standing up quickly. Tom followed, not before glaring at Sam and I as we too stood up to head to dinner.